


Not A Bolter

by HannahPelham



Series: Hons and Counter Hons [1]
Category: The Pursuit of Love Series - Nancy Mitford
Genre: F/M, the ongoing adventures of fanny and alfred's youngest daughter Linda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:08:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24570568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannahPelham/pseuds/HannahPelham
Summary: Linda Wincham was determined that she wasn't going to be a bolter like her Aunt Linda and her grandmother. A fierce Hon, she was sure she would find a lovely Hon out in the wild to fall in love with, but it wasn't going to be as easy as that
Relationships: Fanny Wincham/Alfred Wincham, Linda Wincham/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Hons and Counter Hons [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775935





	Not A Bolter

Fanny Wincham had always worried that her children would be frightful Counter-Hons. She loved Alfred dearly, and she knew in her heart that he was a Hon at heart. The Wincham children knew none of the original Hons and Counter Hons, having never met their beloved Aunt Linda. Living in Oxford, they saw their ‘Aunt’ Polly, as well as dear Lord Merlin, and Lady Montdore and Cedric, but generally they lived a calm, normal life with an academic father and a society mother. 

They heard stories of their Aunt Linda, and of the Bolter, their grandmother, but never met such figures. They played with their chums and visited Great Aunt Emily and Polly and Geoffrey Paddington and the Montdores and even the Alconleighs, but the figure of their tragic Aunt Linda had always fascinated them.

Why had she married Tony Kroesig? Why didn’t she like their cousin Moira, who they never saw? Why had she run away with a Communist? Why had she left the Communist? Why Paris? Why the Duke de Sauveterre? 

The youngest Wincham daughter, a Linda herself, had always been intensely curious about her namesake. The five Wincham children - David, Fabrice (the child of Linda and the Duke de Sauveterre), Bobby, Rose, and Linda - grew up on these stories and always wondered what she’d have been like. None of the children were so fascinated by stories of their mother’s society days and friends and family like little Linda. 

Linda Wincham was a rather precocious, highly strung, but an intensely beautiful young girl. She was, in many ways, much like her namesake. Linda Radlett, or the stories of her at least, had made a very large impression on Linda Wincham. Summers at Alconleigh, Linda being too young to have spent the war there, just heightened the enthusiasm young Linda found for life. 

Fanny and Alfred had always found Linda the hardest of their children to control, and then, in 1968, when Linda turned 18 and began falling in love, well, then the Winchams found they had no power over her whatsoever. 

* * *

Linda Wincham was a very modern kind of girl. She had a flat in London, much to her father’s dismay, and she was quite the party girl. She loved attention, and as she grew she heard more and more that she was at risk of becoming ‘a bolter’. She had heard about the original ‘bolter’, her grandmother, and of course her Aunt Linda, who had done her fair share of bolting. Linda Wincham was quite happy being at risk of being a bolter, but not actually being a bolter. Yes, she had quite a few boyfriends, but none of it ever became serious enough for her to bolt from. As her older siblings began marrying and starting families, Linda used her parents enthusiasm for being grandparents as an excuse to be more naughty. With Fanny and Alfred occupied with a small army of grandchildren, Linda got to work. 

* * *

  
  


The train puffed and steamed into Paddington station. Paddington, a name that would always remind Linda of the stories of her Aunt Polly running away with Lord Paddington. Linda wondered whether she might one day run away with a Lord. She decided it would be a very glamorous thing to do, especially in her not very glamorous family. All the glamorous members, Aunt Linda and the bolter, were long gone. The rest of her family were frightful Counter-Hons, in her eyes. Her mother, of course, felt differently, but she wasn’t her mother. She wasn’t like her father, for that matter. Linda, well, Linda was Linda. 

As she arrived back at her flat, she had letters waiting for her from all of her friends. She scribbled replies and returned missed phone calls, before finally unpacking her belongings. Her mother had sent her home with more food and clothes, not that she needed any of it. 

There was one letter that Linda Wincham didn’t answer. 

George Altrincham had been in love with Linda Wincham for a very long time. He, a Lord after the death of his father, realised he should marry someone with a slightly better pedigree in society than a Wincham, but that wouldn’t stop him being desperately in love with her. In reality, he did want to marry her, but knew he would probably have to settle for her being his mistress, if she’d agree. 

Linda had decided upon first meeting him that George Altrincham was a Counter-Hon. During the summer just gone, he had been discussed with her cousins and siblings in the safety of Alconleigh’s Laundry Cupboard, and it was agreed by all the Hons that George Altrincham was officially a Counter-Hon, and so Linda couldn’t reply to his letter, whether she wanted to or not. 

As it turned out, she didn’t need to. She had barely set foot inside Rules in Covent Garden when she was accosted by the man himself. 

“Linda, darling, back from Oxford?” George crooned as he kissed her on the cheek. 

“Yes, Lord Altrincham, I had a lovely time visiting my family” she replied, trying to get away to join her friends. She wanted to stay and talk to him, but knew if the Hons found out she’d be done for. George watched her go, and she was quite the sight. Since she’d moved to London, Linda had embraced the fashion for the miniskirt to the max. Everything she bought came from Carnaby Street. As he watched her walk away, George realised that unless he found somebody even better than her, he’d end up dying an old bachelor, his title dying with him. 

Unfortunately for him, Linda never came round to him, and he was just another name in Linda’s little black book of exes. George Altrincham never married, and his title died with him. 

Linda had realised early on in whatever they’d had going on that George Altrincham wasn’t the man for her. Her grandmother had once said to her mother that you think every single one is the great love of your life, until you find the one that actually is. She’d never thought George could be the great love of her life, so she decided it should end as quickly as it started. She’d bolted, but before she’d even got out of the starting gates. 

Linda Wincham wasn’t going to be a bolter. She was determined. 


End file.
